Chocolate truffles are a long time favorite. Companies such as Joseph Schmidt have wonderful truffles! Have you ever thought you could make homemade truffles as tasty and beautiful as Joseph Schmidt? Well now you can!
We used candy painting bottles, a truffle mold, dark, milk and white chocolate, sugar layons and gold luster dust to make these beautiful truffles! Read more….
Posted by: admin | 06-09-2007 | 03:06 PM
Posted in: Recipes | Comments (0)
8 ounces of Guittard chocolate chips
4 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar plus 2 tablespoons
2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon of Madagascar bourbon vanilla
8 strawberries
1 ripe banana
Parfait will have 2 layers
1st layer - dark chocolate cream - melt 8 ounces of chocolate in the microwave in 20 second intervals to avoid scorching. Place 2 1/2 cups of heavy cream and 2 tablespoons sugar in a chilled bowl. Beat with electric mixer for about 2 minutes or until soft peaks form in the cream. Slowly incorporate the melted chocolate into the cream.
2nd layer - cocoa cream - place 2 cups of heavy cream, 1/2 cup of sugar, the cocoa and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla in the chilled bowl. Mix on medium until soft peaks form in the cream, about 4-5 minutes.
Place 2 large spoonfuls of each layer into glass bowl, forming layers. In between the layers add sliced banana and onto of the layers add your strawberries. Dust with cocoa powder of desired.
Posted by: admin | 05-01-2007 | 02:05 PM
Posted in: Recipes | Comments (0)
3 cups of pecan pieces
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup of butter, melted
1 pound of bulk caramel
2/3 cup whipping cream, divided
8 ounces of Guittard semi-sweet baking chips
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon Madagascar bourbon vanilla
Place 2 cups of the pecans in the food processor and process until finely ground. Mix with sugar and butter. Press onto bottom of a 9 inch pie plate. Bake 12-15 minutes. Microwave caramel and 1/3 cup of the cream on high for 3 minutes stirring every 30 seconds and pour onto crust. Sprinkle the rest of the nuts over the caramel. Place chocolate,remaining cream, and vanilla in saucepan and cook on low heat until the chocolate is melted stirring constantly. Pour over the pie. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
Posted by: admin | 03-13-2007 | 02:03 PM
Posted in: Recipes | Comments (0)
I should say EASY easy easy Chocolate Strawberry Cheese Cake Truffle!
Melted Guittard Molding Chocolate
Strawberry Cream Cheese
Truffle mold
Pour chocolate into a truffle mold and let sit for one minute, then dump out the chocolate leaving a thin shell. Freeze until set. Scoop out strawberry cream cheese and put in the mold. (Do not over stuff with cream cheese) Cover cream cheese with melted chocolate, tap the mold to make sure everything settles. Freeze until set. Once set pop them out of the mold. I would keep these refrigerated instead of sitting out for long periods of time.
Posted by: admin | 02-20-2007 | 03:02 PM
Posted in: Recipes | Comments (0)
CW 31 of Sacramento interviewed the owner of An Occasional Chocolate for their live morning TV show “Good Day Sacramento.”
The owner of An Occasional Chocolate, Cheryl Sandberg, showed viewers how to make truffles, dipped cookies, turtles and molds in two 4 minute segments of the show early morning on Saturday, January, 27, 2007. Kelly Chapman, the interviewer, was a chocolate candy making fanatic herself and enjoyed the interview just as much as Mrs. Sandberg did!
Posted by: admin | 02-09-2007 | 04:02 PM
Posted in: Articles | Comments (0)
White Chocolate Macadamian Nut Bark
2 cups Guittard semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups white chocolate (recommended: Guittard Choc-Au-Lait)
2/3 cup toasted macadamian nuts or toasted almonds, coarsely chopped
Line a 13 by 9-inch cookie sheet with waxed paper, allowing 2 inches of paper to hang over sides. Melt all but 1/4 cup of semisweet chocolate morsels in microwave on medium power for 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, or until smooth. Pour chocolate onto prepared sheet and spread to cover entire surface and form 1 even layer. Melt all but 1/4 cup of white chips in microwave on medium power for 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, or until smooth. Drizzle melted white chocolate over semisweet chocolate layer. Using a toothpick or skewer, swirl the melted chocolates together, creating a marbled effect.
Place nuts in a plastic bag and crush, using a rolling pin. Sprinkle chocolate with nuts and remaining semisweet and white morsels. Gently press toppings into melted chocolates. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, or until chocolate is firm. Remove waxed paper from chocolate. Cut or break chocolate into bite-size pieces.
Posted by: admin | 02-08-2007 | 01:02 AM
Posted in: Recipes | Comments (2)
Panna Cotta is creamy, light, airy Italian dessert and we added chocolate!
6 servings - quick and easy!
2/3 cup milk
1 envelope of unflavored gelatin
2 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon Madagascar Bourban vanilla
1 bag of Guittard semi-sweet baking chips, chopped
In a small bowl, mix the gelatin and the milk and let it sit for 5 minutes.
In a sauce pan mix cream, sugar and vanilla and stir over medium heat until the cream starts to boil then remove from heat. Add the chocolate and stir until melted.
Put the sauce pan back on medium heat and add the gelatin and milk mix. Cook for 3 minutes until dissolved. Poor the mixture into a bowl and cover. Chill overnight and serve.
Posted by: admin | 01-03-2007 | 05:01 PM
Posted in: Recipes | Comments (1)
An Occasional Chocolate’s owner, Cheryl Sandberg, was interviewed along with other top chocolatiers for a special Christmas article in the Washington DC Times about candy making.
Washington DC Times, posted December 26th, 2006
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20061224-095649-2318r.htm
Every holiday, Falls Church resident B. Keith Ryder makes dozens of truffles to add to his gift boxes for family and friends “You can avoid preservatives manufacturers put in chocolate. If you care about a higher quality, you can make sure you use gourmet ingredients,” says Mr. Ryder, a chocolate and cake-decorating instructor for Fairfax County Public Schools Office of Adult and Community Education. “It lets you come up with your own flavor combinations, too.”
Mr. Ryder, owner of a home-based bakery, BCakes by BKeith, ventured into chocolate making to add chocolate work into his cakes and experiment with flavor ideas. Flavor, he says, is the most important decision when making chocolate, followed by presentation, shape and size.
“Then after that, it’s how many,” says Mr. Ryder, president of the International Cake Exploration Societe (ICES), a society of sugar artists based in Monroe, Mich.
Learning to make chocolate confections — such as truffles, solid chocolates, filled chocolates and chocolate-covered berries, pretzels, graham crackers and other edibles — at home is easier than it looks and requires just the basic kitchenware, say chocolatiers and chocolate-making instructors.
The kitchenware they recommend includes a saucepan, glass or plastic mixing bowl, thermometer and rubber spatula or wooden spoon, along with molds for making molded candies that can be purchased at craft and at cake and candy supply stores.
Molds come in hundreds of shapes and sizes, such as animals and holiday decorations, and can be used for different types of candies, including truffles, bonbons, mocha spoons and dessert cups.
Chocolate can be purchased in bulk in a variety of flavors, including dark, milk, white, semisweet and bittersweet.
“You can make such a wide variety of things. Your imagination can go crazy with it,” says Van Billington, executive director of Retail Confectioner’s International, a trade association of retail manufacturers in Glenview, Ill.
Two grades of chocolate are used in making chocolate candy. Couveture or real chocolate is made with cocoa butter and requires tempering, a process of melting chocolate into a liquid state and manipulating it so it can set hard and shiny. Confectioner’s coating, a lower-grade chocolate made of fats, does not need to be tempered, chocolatiers say.
Tempering can be done in a variety of ways, but the most common method is melting two-thirds of the chocolate and, after it is melted, adding the rest of the chocolate, Mr. Ryder says. As the chocolate is melting in both steps, the temperature is raised and lowered in intervals, giving the chocolate short exposures to heat, and the mixture is continuously stirred, he says.
The first heating is to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, says Peter Greweling, professor of baking and pastry arts for the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. He is the author of “Chocolates & Confections, Formula, Theory, and Technique for the Artisan Confectioner,” which is scheduled to be published in February.
After it is heated, the chocolate then is cooled to 80 degrees, stirred and rewarmed to 89 or 90 degrees, Mr. Greweling says.
The chocolate either can be heated in the microwave in short intervals or over a water bath, which consists of a heated pot of water used to heat a container on top of it, he says.
Mr. Greweling warns against using excessive heat and getting water on the chocolate. Overheating the chocolate thickens it and causes it to become grainy, while water causes it to thicken and prevents it from flowing and coating properly, he says.
As such, tempering chocolate can be challenging for a beginner and requires practice to perfect, says Sarah Tenaglia, senior food editor of Bon Appetit, a food and entertainment magazine in Los Angeles. Getting the right temperatures and working quickly are essential to the process, she says.
“There’s all of these variables that might prevent it from looking as pretty and shiny as a professional might get it to look,” Ms. Tenaglia says.
Mock or quick tempering is an alternative, a method of melting the chocolate to 110 to 115 degrees, then refrigerating it until 15 to 20 minutes before serving, she says. Chilling prevents the chocolate from blooming, or getting spots on top of the chocolate and streaks from cocoa butter coming to the surface, she says.
Once the chocolate is tempered, it can be used to make a variety of chocolate candies.
For truffles, the chocolate can be used to form the exterior shell and to make the filling or ganache with the addition of lukewarm heavy whipping cream and bourbon vanilla, says Cheryl Sandberg, owner of An Occasional Chocolate, a company in Roseville, Calif., that provides chocolate-making supplies and classes.
Purees, fruit creams, caramel and other liquids also can be used to flavor ganache, which is a mixture of chocolate and a liquid, Mr. Ryder says.
“Make sure anything that has chocolate give it a pinch of salt. It’s a flavor enhancer and makes the chocolate more chocolaty,” he says.
Truffles can be made in a variety of methods.
For instance, the ganache can be made with a truffle scoop to form the chocolate into balls of a uniform size, Mrs. Sandberg says. The balls then are dipped in real chocolate for 10 seconds until completely covered and are placed on waxed paper or another nonstick surface, she says.
Tempered chocolate can be poured into a mold shaped like a half-sphere and the remainder dumped out, Mr. Ryder says. After the chocolate firms, the ganache is poured into the shell, leaving enough room for a top coat of tempered chocolate that will seal the candy, he says.
The chocolate takes about 10 minutes to set during each step, he says.
Another candy that can be made out of chocolate is bark.
Melted or tempered chocolate is spread in a thin layer, about 1/8th- to 1/4th-inch thick, on a nonstick surface, says Theresa Souther, pastry instructor at L’Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg. While the chocolate is still wet, peppermint, coconut, dried fruit or nuts can be sprinkled on top, then it is put in the refrigerator to harden for breaking or cutting into pieces, she says.
“I would say start with truffles, bark and things you can do by hand and work your way up from there,” Mrs. Souther says, adding, “It’s always fun to have something you can share and show off all of your work.”
Posted by: admin | 12-26-2006 | 11:12 AM
Posted in: Articles | Comments (0)
Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls
12 oz jar of peanut butter
1 stick of softened butter
1 pound box of powered sugar
1 bag of Guittard dark or milk chocolate
Mix the first 3 ingredients together and roll them into balls. Dip into melted Guittard dark or milk chocolate using the dipping tool.
Posted by: admin | 12-05-2006 | 08:12 PM
Posted in: Recipes | Comments (0)
Cheryl and Her Chocolate Factory
Yummy treats a big hit with customers
The best compliment Sandberg said she has received about her delicious talents is customers, relatives and friends asking: “You made this?”
Everyone from moms to restaurateurs to professional chefs knock on Sandberg’s digital door, asking for chocolate-making supplies.
The business supplies wannabe candy makers with everything they need to do the job right.
Sandberg said the best part for her is being able to share her talents with interested amateurs moonlighting as gourmet dessert chefs.
But everything she sells on her Web site is available year-round.
Sandberg takes an old fashioned approach to building her delish business by watching others do it and improving on it.
“She’s really good,” said friend and customer Kathryn Christensen. “People are impressed when I show them what I’ve made with my supplies from her.”
Years after taking a do-it-yourself class on how to make chocolate treats, Sandberg is reveling and biting her nails this holiday season.
“I’m very nervous and excited at the same time. I started stocking like crazy about a month ago because I could feel the rush coming and now it’s here,” Sandberg said.
In her previous careers, which were heavily based in customer service, Sandberg gained an education in Web and graphic design. She created a Web site (www.chocolate-candy-recipe.com) making her home-based business a call center for chocoholics.
“I try to make the business and the Web page as approachable as possible,” Sandberg said. “I aim for beginners.”
Sandberg uses Guittard Chocolate Company as her supplier for the majority of her baking goods. She said they cover the full range of chocolate quality, from high-end French chocolate to low-end chocolate designed for beginners.
“She’s great,” said Karen Clark. “Her products are awesome and her customer service is wonderful. She has really become a top-notch provider. She loves teaching the regular mom on how to make things that look like they came out of a candy store.”
Clark is Sandberg’s cousin and is a second- and third-grade teacher for the Sebastopol School District.
“I love to get my students and my own children involved whenever I’m doing something with chocolate. They are usually half helping and half eating it,” Clark said.
Posted by: admin | 11-29-2006 | 03:11 PM
Posted in: Articles | Comments (0)